Hey all! Today, actually about five minutes ago, Papa put something really heavy that I would so so love to share with all of you. So all that I would ask is that before you read this, that maybe you say a quick prayer over the condition of your heart. Ask Him to soften it to the words you’re about to read, because something so groundbreaking and important could be waiting here for you to hear, and the enemy would just love to harden you to it.
Prayer time!
Okay. SO!
The topic I am going to start off with is the heaviness and absolute harshness of struggles with comparison. Everyone, and I mean everyone has fallen victim to comparing themselves to others. Whether that be to a far off celebrity with bucko bucks and a husband who just got voted “Sexiest Man Alive” for the third year in a row, or the girl in your third period with soft hair and a surplus of friends.
No matter who it is, and likely it’s a ton of different people for a ton of different reasons, it is easy to find ourselves falling into sizing ourselves up to the image that other people portray. And the problem is, often, we fall short of the standard we have set for ourselves just by glancing at another person in a coffee shop.
Immediately, after your brain deems you lesser than the person you just spent a few minutes analyzing and effectively trying to find a flaw that will make you feel better about yourself, it becomes a major hit to your self esteem and brings down any ounce of confidence you may have had before that.
So why do we do this? We know the feeling, we recognize the pain that comes from scrolling through social media and seeing that party you missed an invite to or giving in to stalking that girl your ex-boyfriend is apparently dating now, yet we continue this cycle of hurt and longing for more than the beauty of what we have already been given.
So, something to recognize and appreciate is how we talk about the world in a series of adjectives. Every conversation you have includes describing words in which you paint a picture of what you are talking about. This is also true for how we view ourselves. When you look in the mirror and see the face you have known your whole life staring back at you, it isn’t uncommon that you use words in your mind that you wouldn’t dare use to describe your best friend.
How do you speak to yourself? How do you, at the end of the day, greasy or wet hair and no makeup, view yourself as a person? Or after that new haircut that makes your head look a little lopsided. Or when the big guy at the gym is throwing around way more weight than you ever have. My guesses are that it isn’t in the way you should.
Because what we as humans inevitably do, is runs ourselves through a filter of all the good images other people have put out there of themselves and deem ourselves unworthy of praise or love. Because that’s what we’ve been told.
But I have a word for you.
In a world of adjectives: tall, short, skinny, fat, pretty, ugly, so on and so forth, there is only one that you need to pay any mind to:
His.
You are not what you say yourself to be, you are not the mean comment someone made your freshman year about your hair that you’ve never let go of, you are not the team that you go cut from, you are not the job that never called you back after you spent hours on that resume, you are not too quiet or too blunt or too neat or too lazy, you are His.
And if you saw yourself through the eyes of the Creator, you would weep softly. He says You are redeemed, You are strong, You are a warrior, You are beautiful, and beloved, and perfectly made in my image. Because when He created you with the same hands that created the mountains and the valleys, He stepped back, saw you as you are, and said, “I’m done. This one is perfect.”
He calls you His. He calls you cherished. And Jesus promises us to defend and protect us from the evils of the world, but what is He to do when the sharpest weapons against you fall from your own lips?
The only adjective that you need to allow into your mind when you view yourself is His. Because that is the most amazing and reassurinng term anyone could ever throw your way.
Rest in Him. Because the being that formed every beautiful person, place, and thing you have ever seen also created you. And He wouldn’t change a thing.
Love y’all!
